Ethan Dodd – Visual Artist. Cardiff, Wales

November 17, 2014March 5, 2015

‘Jus’ – Simone Pellegrini

Whilst studying the wares in a market stall in Rome, Sarah discovered a book within the sea of literature, and called me over; I took it from her hands, and began to study it. It was this book; ‘Jus’ by Simone Pellegrini, a book which unfurled artworks unlike any I had seen before; dark, primitive, yet beautiful in design, it echoes the wonders that are held in one’s dreams. Nightmarish beings that are at once comforting, as they are sinister; beings that could only be born from the deepest recesses of the mind. His work remains in a simple scheme; bloody reds, pale golds, Bone white, and deep blacks. Their colour resemble those of the alchemical stages; Blackness, Whiteness, Yellow and Red, the colours of the body, and of religion.

‘Fluore’

The book opens, and at once it speaks to me; it’s funny, the entirety of the book is in the artist’s native language of Italian, yet the images of his work speak far louder than any of his words could. I do feel, however, that I am missing out on vital information because of my inability to understand the philosophies behind his works. Nevertheless, I feel a great affinity to the works present within this book, especially this one; ‘Fluore’, what at first appears to be a flower, soon unfurls to reveal something more; an outer layer of black petals, consisting of a repeating pattern of amorphous trees, all blending together like some thick dark cloud, the inner layers resembling something more flesh-like, more human in nature. Even the petals at the bottom of the flower are a series of legs that are entangled in a way not possible in reality, but certainly so within the mind of Pellegrini. The red patterns on either side resemble veins, the whole flower is like some large, living, fleshy bio-mass, one which I can easily imagine pulsating out from the page.

Religious, Surreal imagery is juxtaposed against the sinister drawings crafted by Pellegrini

There is a resemblance to Kandinsky’s works on the Book of Revelation, cacophonies of torment and darkness, subdued violence, all packaged in a beautifully fleshy colour scheme. I have also noticed a resemblance to the works of Dante Alligheri, and his Magnum Opus, The Divine Comedy. It is very obvious here, more so than in other places in his work, where we see repeating patterns of human bodies whirling together, becoming one singular ring of flesh, as well as black beings sprouting forth from hellish trees, surrounding those human-like beings who reside within this barren, desolate landscape. There’s a very distinct atmosphere here, and it is not of death, nor is it of life, but of existence. An existence, one that has been here forever, and will continue to exist until the end of time; these beings are trapped, but they are complacent at the same time, they have accepted their fate, and this is what is so strange about the works. They tell of a nightmarish world inhabited by humans, but a world in which we are fine with the horrors and monstrosities that exist around us.

An intense body of work, and one that speaks of loneliness and desolation. I can”t help but be drawn back to these works time and time again, I feel a fondness for the beings within these drawings, trapped in worlds beyond their understanding, hounded by horrors born from the madness within their own human minds. There are examples of miracles within these works, of divine beings coming down from the heavens to the world of these beings, but they do not aid, they in fact just observe; they watch and peruse the horrors that are being wrought upon these poor creatures, but we are much like them, we cannot help, but can only stare down and observe; we are Gods, but we are not just.